Miss Morello

What kind of person would be loony enough to take 10 teenagers to a totally foreign country, without the help of a tour company?

Well, ME!

Actually, I don't think it's crazy at all. At least, not if the 10 teenagers happen to all be amazing young people that you know would reap incredible benefits from traveling outside the borders of their own country. Oh, and it doesn't hurt if you have done some independent travel yourself along the way, and lived in Japan for a year :)

Let me stop and officially introduce myself. I'm the person in the picture above who is NOT Japanese. My name is Nicole Morello, and I am a social studies teacher at Oakland Aviation High School, a small public charter school located on the property of the Oakland Airport. I have been a teacher for about 6 years now, including a year in Japan and a year in Korea.

When I graduated from high school, I was lucky enough to join one of my teachers and 5 classmates on one of those whirlwind tours of Europe - 4 countries in 10 days; the kind of trip where if you blink your eyes you might end up missing something. At the time, I was thrilled to be able to see so many cool things, but I had NO IDEA that those 10 days would literally change the course of my life -- it was on that trip that I was bitten by the infamous TRAVEL BUG.

And I was bitten hard! In the 12 years since that first trip, I have visited 23 countries on 4 continents, and spent two years living and teaching in Asia. Almost all of my travel has been independent, carrying all my belongings on my back and deciding where I was going as I went along. Travel is my passion; it opens my eyes, blows my mind, feeds my soul, and has undoubtedly made me who I am today.

So I consider myself fortunate to have the opportunity to give young people the same opportunity that I had. I hope that for them, this trip will be the first of many, and the doorway to a future as conscientious and educated citizens of the world. I hope that it will open their eyes, blow their minds, and feed their souls. If anything, I'm pretty sure it will be a darn good time!

If you are reading this, I hope that you will consider donating to help us out on our trip. Please visit our firstgiving page at.....